A soft leopard print look

Hi everyone~I saw this amazing nail art over at Katrina's blog (I can't find the post anymore ><) and knew I had to try it out for myself :)

I applied three coats of NOPI Kim-pletely in love onto my index and pinky nails. For my fourth finger, I applied three coats of China Glaze Sunset sail. Two coats of Ulta3 lily white was applied onto my thumb and third finger. I then took Kim-pletely in love and Sunset sail to apply the random dots for the leopard print. The prints were outlined with Ulta3 black satin.

I loved this mani so much I wore it for four days :D What do you think of it?

Thanks for reading.
~Sharon

Cocktail, with a touch of gold

Hi everyone~ On Saturday, I attended my church's annual end of year dinner. The dress code was 'cocktail, with a touch of gold'. I decided that bit of gold to be my nails...surprised? :P

I started off with two coats of Hello Kitty Golden girl. This is a beautiful soft gold foil - I can't believe I didn't try this sooner! I tend to shy away from golds as I feel they clash with my yellow based skin tone  ^^;; Not this one though! It dried extremely fast too, I was applying the first coat onto my third nail and accidentally touched my pinky...well, it was dry already so there was no need to redo that nail! :D

On my thumb and fourth finger, I layered on one coat of Nicole by OPI Disco dolls. I used Ulta3 black satin and lily white for the flowers before going back over the petals with Golden girl. The centre of the flower was filled with Disco dolls.

The Hello Kitty nail polish is available in Priceline stores now and retail for $9.95 each. I personally haven't seen any of the Hello Kitty cosmetics in the stores I've walked into so it may be a good idea to call into the stores to check if they have it.

I love this mani loads and received quite a few compliments on the night ^^ What do you think of this mani?

Thanks for dropping by!
~Sharon

A product was provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

Rainbow leopard

Hi ladies~A few days ago, I decided to try out Nicole by OPI It's all about the glam from the Kardashian Kolors collection. However, after three coats it was still a little patchy and so voilà, a rainbow leopard print evolved :P It's all about the glam is a pretty marshmallow white with shimmer running throughout it. Too bad about the sheerness - I might try to layer it over a white crème first next time.

Because it was patchy and I didn't want to add a fourth coat, I brought out some colours for the leopard spots.

Orange: Australis Titania
Green: Australis Sweetpea
Yellow: Ulta3 spring blossom
Purple: China Glaze Light as air

I quite enjoyed this spontaneous mani and wore it for three whole days :)

For Australian ladies, NOPI nail polish can be found at Terry White Chemist and selected pharmacies. Each bottle retails for $14.95. The Kardashian Kolors collection will be available in December.

What do you think of this mani?

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

Some products were provided for consideration. For more information, please view my disclosure policy.

It's the blues~

Hello ladies :) So after my green phase, it was time for the blues. I had just received Orly Stone cold from the latest Mineral FX collection in the mail and totally needed to try it out. Unfortunately, I think this mani looks so much better in photos - in real life, not so promising :(

I started off with two coats of Australis Sky high. I then used Ulta3 lily white and a dotting tool to add some polka dots. I took out my Glossyblossom nail art striper in white to paint the stripes. For my index and pinky nails, I applied two coats of Orly Stone cold. This is a gorgeous, gorgeous blue and I love it so much! I found application a little annoying though as the polish took a while to dry. If you don't leave enough dry time in between coats you'll definitely end up with a goopy mess. I think the end result is soooo worth it though, just look at the beauty and depth it has!

On my thumb I used a dotting tool to outline the heart in white before filling it in. I then layered on one coat of Mode cosmetics Diamonte. Using a smaller end of another dotting tool, I went around the heart with Aldo Stardust. Stardust is a sparse glitter polish which would look great for layering!

I'm proud of my heart, heh!

What do you think of this mani - hit or miss?

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

Some products were provided for consideration in this post. Fore more information, please see my disclosure policy.

A rainbow creation

Hey everyone~ I'm actually posting three days in a row, what a feat! :P While my last pink notd did grow on me, I knew it was time for a change as soon as the weekend hit. I received some polishes from OPI's Muppets collection yesterday and couldn't wait to try them out. Rainbow connection was totally calling out my name and I just had to wear it :)

I applied two coats of Ulta3 black satin onto all my nails except the middle - it has two coats of Ulta3 gold rush fever. For my index and pinky, I applied two coats of Rainbow connection. For my thumb and fourth finger, I used a thin brush to apply the gold stripes (gold rush fever). I layered on a coat of Mode cosmetics Diamonte on my third finger (you can hardly see the glittler though, unfortunately) and then finished it off with a crackled look with OPI Black shatter.

I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with how sparse the glitter in Rainbow connection is. You won't get full nail coverage unless you plan on applying at least four coats. The glitter however, is beautiful and I'm really happy to finally own a true rainbow glitter polish! It does seem to be a dupe of the Milani and Essence glitter polishes but since I can't get my hands on them, the OPI will definitely suffice :)

What do you think of Rainbow connection? (I keep on typing rainbow concoction and then having to delete it >< Don't you think it's such a suitable name for it though? :P)

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

A product was provided for review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

Ulta3 = NYC and a Ulta3 yellow comparison

Aussie ladies may have recently noticed large tubs of NYC polishes in their local Woolworths.  After seeing the colours I instantly new they were exact dupes of the Ulta3 polishes, but with different names and labels.  They are both distributed by the Heat Group.

One evening after work, I decided to do something totally mindless and match up the NYC colors to their dupe in the Ulta3 range.  Not every Ulta3 colour is an NYC, clearly as there are more Ulta3 colours than NYCs.

For polishes I didn't see in person, I used the list of NYC polishes on the Crush Cosmetics site. I know I may not have got them all matched perfectly, especially all the shades of pinks and magenta's, but I think this is pretty close.  If you know of any errors, please let me know. 

NYC	Ulta3
Angel	Crystallina
Appleberry	Footloose fuchsia
Apricot	Jazzle
Aqua	Jelly bean
Aubergine	Gooseberry
Baby Blue	Little boy blue
Banana Split	Honolulu
Berry Fuchsia	Flashback Fuchsia
Berrylicious	Mulberry
Blue Bird	Spring shower
Blue Sparkle	Blue glitter
Bronzed	Sunkissed
Broomstick	Delight
Cabernet	Burgundy
Casper	Lily white
Charcoal	Wild berry
Chilli	Sizzling red
Chocolate	Chocolate cake
Clear	Clear
Copper Penny	Antique gold
Cotton Candy	Bon bon
Coral	Watermelon
Deep Berry	Waterlily
Disco Diva	Gold Digger
Dusty Pink	Beesting
Feather boa	Silver pink
Femme Fatale	Foxy russett
Fire Hydrant	Fire
Frappe	Yummy mauve
Fuchsia	Bouquet
Gelati	Tahiti
Gerbera	Pink colada
Glow worm	Citris
Gobin	Jelly
Gold coin	Precious
Goldfish	Crazy
Grape Juice	Pearly grape
Green Sparkle	Charmed
Hazard	Carrot top
Hot stud	Hot Spring
Icy pole	Pink supreme
In the navy	Midnight
Lavender	Sweet violet
Lemon	Spring blossom
Lolly pop	Lolly pop lilac
Luv lime	Lagoon
Magenta	Bo peep
Manicure pink	French pink
Mauving on up	Elegant mauve
Mushroom	Allure
Musk stick	Baby pink
Natural	Natural
Night	Black satin
Non chip	Non chip
Peachy keen	Spring fling
Petticoat	Star dust
Pink cheeks	Natural spring
Pink princess	French blush
Platinum	Envy
Polka dot	Purple passion
Pretty pink	Poppy
Professor plum	Black plum
Purple monkey	Spring break
Rag doll	Freesia
Raspberry	Plum violet
Redhead	Scarlet
Red slippers	English rose
Red sparkle	Red glitter
Rhythm n blues	Hollywood
Ruby shoes	Brandy wine
Shocking pink	Eighties fuchsia
Show off	Fruit tingle
Silver bullet	Snazzle
Silver sparkle	Silver glitter
Slate	Silver grey
Sprinkles	Confetti
Sun goddess	Tropez
Tin roof	Metal
Top coat	Top coat
Vintage pink	Dusty rose

Now after that very long and boring list of polishes, I thought I should do a quick nail picture to make the post more interesting.  Although I'm sure that long and boring list will become a useful resource over time.

Here is a comparison picture of the four yellows in the Ulta3 range.  The two middle ones, the new release Frangipani and Honolulu are very similar, but Frangipani is a smidgen brighter .  Doesn't Citrus look amazing here!

There's glitter and there's crackle

Hello hello! As promised, I'm back with a mani for today :) I was actually all ready to polish my nails but had a little problem - I didn't know what colour to choose! D: Do you ladies feel this sometimes? To think I own just over 200 bottles of nail polish but didn't know which one to use...dilemma!

Anyway, I finally decided on using OPI Last friday night since I love love love the pretty blue-yellow-orange-green glitter suspended in a sheer blue base. I thought I'd layer it over black and then inspiration hit me - why not reverse the colours for an accent nail? So crackle polish was brought out to layer over a blue base shade :)

Oh and I totally chopped my nails while I was sick haha. I couldn't stand the length they were growing to and couldn't be bothered to file them so for the first time in over a year, I brought out my nail clippers :P Hence the nubs and rounded nail shape. I can't wait until they grow back out though, I much more prefer the squoval shape to this.

I applied two coats of Ulta3 black satin and then layered two coats of Last Friday night over it. Don't you just adore the beauty that is LFN? It's just so gorgeous, definitely my favourite polish from the Katy Perry collection! For my accent nail, I applied two coats of OPI Yodel me on my cell and then layered a coat of OPI Black shatter over it.

What do you think of this mani? :)

Thanks for reading!
~Sharon

Ulta 3 Spring/Summer 2011 collection Part 2

Alrightly then.  Here is part two of the collection. I've put all the greens together so you can compare them.

Tahitian lime - three coats, no top coat, full sun.  A bright lime green.  Yellower than Jelly, but also much more opaque. I'm not too sure about this colour, it's really, really green.  And we all know it's not easy being green.  In fact it really is kermit the frog green!

Mermaid green - two coats, SV top coat, full sun.  This is a really pretty blue green creme.  I'm sure there would be other brands that have similar a colour, but I don't own many creme polishes in other brands, cause I generally wear shimmers, flakes, glass flecks or holos. So if you know what other colours it looks like, please let me know.

Mojito - yuuummm yes please. Two coats, no top coat, full sun.  I'm finding it really hard to describe all these different green shades.  But hey, you can see what colour it is, right?  I probably should have done a third coat on this one, it's not streaky or anything, but I can see VNL.  Does that make it a jelly polish?

Orchid - one coat, no top coat, full sun.  Orchid feels a little like the odd man out.  I feel like singing  in sesame street tunes "One of these shades is not like the others, one of these shades just doesn't belong, can you tell me which ..." and so on.  So yeah, here we have an amazing purple shimmer, in with a bunch of creams.  

Remember the Autum/Winter collection with all the fever polishes.  They were all shimmers with the exception of one purple creme.  And now here is the purple shimmer in amongst all the cremes?

Anyway, to me, this polish is the stand out.  This is only one coat.  The formula of this one was so much easier to work with than all the others, and although it uses the same brush, it didn't drag.  If you only grab one of these polishes, this is the one to get.

I loved it so much that I decided to stamp it with China Glaze 2030, using a Bundle Monster plate and wear it for a few days.

I've worn this mani for three days now and am pleased to say that the staying power of this polish still seems to be great.  I was worried that because they are now made in China that they would go all chippy and horrible, but if this one is anything to go by, it was great.  I wore it with:

• Orly bonder base
• one coat of Orchid
• stamped with CH 2030
• Seche Vite top coat.

Ulta3 Spring/Summer 2011 collection Part 1

Last week I discovered that my favourite little cheap chemist brand had released a new spring/summer collection.

Usually Ulta3 polishes are just jumbled up in a great big white tub at the entrance to a chemist, and you have to rummage around through all the bottles to search for a colour you might like.  This time around however, they were actually in a plastic display unit, displaying four of each colour.  Check out this pic of the display unit posted by Shamisen on the Vogue forum.  It actually looked much more up market than I usually expect of Ulta3.

Here are all the new colours.  There are eight of them, which I will split into two posts.

Blue Marlin - three coats, no top coat. Photo taken outside, but no sun (although you can see the pretty clouds reflecting on my nails).   This one is almost a blue jelly, but with less than three coats it was a little streaky.  Fantastic colour and it didn't seem to stain nails either.

Frangipani - three coats, SV top coat, full sun.  Bright yellow, but not fluro like Citrus but brighter than Honolulu.  This was thickish and streaky, but the finished mani is really great.  I've finally added another yellow to my polish collection.  I think this officially makes 4 yellow polishes that are purley yellow, not gold.

Sunset pink - three coats, SV top coat, full sun.  Bright pink with blue tones, almost fluro.  Amazing colour saturation with this one.  I feel a little like a five year old wearing this, and that i should be wearing hot pink leggings with sequined shoes.

Tangelo - three coats, SV top coat, full sun. Bright fluro orange coral pink.

When on the nail, I immediately thought that Tangelo was a dupe of Tahiti. Tangelo is a margin paler, but not so much that you actually can tell.  

I'm actually really loving these colours.  They are bright and they certainly make me feel warm and summery.  I guess it helps that it was 27 degrees here yesterday!

These polishes are now made in China, not Australia, which is a bit of a bummer, cause I loved being able to wear a cheap Aussie made polish.  The bottle lids are also slightly different, the top edge is slightly rounded now and the white cap is slightly more translucent.  I found the brushes to be really stiff and really hard to work with.  I don't know if it was because all of these colours felt rather thick or if it was the stiff brush, but I found that the brush left deep ridge stroke marks in the wet polish.  These marks generally leveled out as the polish dried, but there a few fingers that stayed a little bumpy and needed top coat to make them look smooth.

If anyone wants to see a comparison swatch between any of the new colours and the existing colours, please let me know.

I'll show the remaining four colours tomorrow.